


Passionfruit

by fattestmermaid



Category: Frasier (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Daphne hates Sherry, Episode: s04e21 Daphne hates Sherry, F/M, First Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23352337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fattestmermaid/pseuds/fattestmermaid
Summary: When Daphne and Sherry get into a fight, Daphne runes to Niles for comfort. This is what happened in another universe, when Daphne's watch couldn't interrupt.
Relationships: Niles Crane/Daphne Moon
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	Passionfruit

“I’m so bloody mad I could scream.”  
  
The anger in Daphne’s eyes was bright, and it threw Niles for a loop when he opened the door. If not for the fact that she pushed past him and into the apartment he might’ve thought his mind was running wild again. It always ran wild where Daphne was concerned. 

“Daphne?” he asked, but his words were cut off.

“That-- that--” Daphne’s words trailed off with a frustrated growl. Niles noticed that her hands were shaking as she set her bag down in one of the chairs. 

“I’m sorry for barging in, Dr. Crane. I’ve had an awful row with Sherry, and I can’t go back to that apartment. I tried a couple of my girlfriends but none of them were home.” Daphne pushed her fingers through her hair and looked at him with those wide brown eyes. Niles got so lost in her gaze that he nearly missed the next words that came out of her mouth. 

“May I spend the night here?”

All of the air was sucked out of the room. Oh how he’d dreamt of this, though Sherry was never what pushed them together. Daphne Moon, Venus herself, would be sleeping under his roof. Maybe he should send Shery a bottle of wine as a thank you. 

That was his last thought, and then he was waking up to cool hands touching his face. 

“Dr. Crane?” Daphne’s face was creased with concern as she looked down at him. “You fainted! Are you all right?”  
  
“Yes-- yes, I’m fine.” He sat up slowly and felt a pang of regret as Daphne’s hand fell from his forehead. “It must have been the heat. Who knew that luxury came at the cost of an air conditioner?”

“Oh yes, the heat.” Daphne fanned one delicate hand in front of her face. “It is rather warm in here, isn’t it?” Niles watched as that hand dropped to Daphne’s lap again. 

“I’m sorry for barging in here. I can’t imagine what you must be thinking of me.”

Niles was pushing away the thought of kissing each of her fingertips. “You have no idea,” he murmured. “--No idea how happy I am that you came to me. Of course you can stay here.” From here he could smell Daphne’s perfume, and he had to stand up to get away from it. Daphne came for help, not for him to pine for her like some creep. He wanted her, God knew he did, but he would never take advantage of a desperate situation. 

“Drink?” he asked, and he lifted the bottle he’d been working on before she had shown up.  
  
“Yes, please.” Daphne accepted the glass he held out and took a small sip. “That woman is just so infuriating sometimes.”  
  
“What happened?” Niles took a seat beside Daphne-- not too close, but just close enough that he could smell a _hint_ of her perfume. That much he could handle, just enough to tease his senses but not enough to take his attention off of her words. 

Daphne had to take another sip of wine before she could get it out. “She’s been giving my number to strangers, men she doesn’t know but thinks that _I_ should go out with! She says that I’m uptight because I don’t have a man in my life!”

The wine nearly spilled from Niles’s glass as he set it down on the table much more sharply than it deserved. “How dare she!” 

“She says I’m too rigid, too picky!” Daphne went on. “She seems to think that the only way I’ll be happy is if I grab the closest man and-- and jump into bed with him!”

It was a thousand miracles that Niles didn’t faint again. This wasn’t playing out like any of his fantasies. “Well--”  
  
“Dr. Crane, please don’t tell me that you agree with her!” Daphne’s voice raised an octave as she fixed those eyes on him again. “Please don’t tell me--”  
  
“No, no, it’s much too hot for hell to have frozen over.” Niles held a hand up and shook his head, even if his mind was screaming that _he was the closest man_! 

Daphne drained the glass of wine and stood up. “She thinks that everything is about sex! You should hear the way she talks about it! Everything is just-- sex sex sex!” 

“Really.” Niles drained his glass, too, because his head was going to explode if he kept watching Daphne’s figure. It seemed that Sherry wasn’t the only one with Daphne and sex on the brain. 

Another sigh passed Daphne’s lips as she fanned her face once more. “Dr. Crane, I don’t want to be a bother, but would it be too much to ask to use the shower? It’s so hot, and it would help me cool down.”

“Yes!” Niles nearly tripped over his feet standing up. “Of course. There’s a bathroom right up the stairs.” _Daphne was going to be naked-- in his house!_ “I can take you if you need.”

“I can find it.” Daphne picked her bag up and smiled at Niles. She was feeling better just being in his presence. He wasn’t calming, not exactly, but there was just something about him. “Thank you, Dr. Crane.” She almost kissed his cheek but thought better of it and headed for the shower instead. 

The cool water did help calm her down, and by the time she was out Daphne had almost forgotten why she was so upset in the first place. If not for the lack of a change of clothes she might have forgotten that she had run away to Dr. Crane’s apartment in the first place. She couldn’t very well join him in just a towel now could she? No, the silk robe hanging on the back of the door would just have to do for the time being, until she could borrow some more suitable pajamas. 

Niles had soft music playing, and he was just setting down a platter of fruit when she returned. His face resembled that of a goldfish when he got a glimpse of her legs, and her _collarbones!_ “Daphne--”

She smiled and ran both hands over the robe. “I didn’t bring a change,” she said. “I hope it’s okay that I borrowed something.”  
  
“It is!” Seeing Daphne in a robe-- _his_ robe-- was making his mind go to dangerous places again. It didn’t help that the fan was doing its damndest to blow the material open, giving him a glimpse of her pale thighs. “Passionfruit?” he asked in a voice that was a smidge higher than was normal.  
  
“Yes, please!” Daphne sat down and picked a piece up between two fingers. Niles watched as the fruit touched her lips, then watched as she licked one fingertip clean. “Is that champagne?”

“Yes!” He popped the cork and poured them each a glass before joining her on the couch again. “I love champagne, but it really isn’t a drink for just one person. Now you’re here for me to share it with.” 

“That’s so sweet.” Daphne smiled and picked up another piece of fruit. “You don’t realize how lonely life can be when you go from being with someone to being by yourself. There’s no one to talk to, no one to hold hands with…”  
  
“No one to drink champagne with.” Niles took another sip before getting a piece of fruit for himself. “You lose out on so much. No one to hold, no one to comfort. It leaves a lot to be desired, like…” He picked the fruit bowl up and held it out before he could finish the sentence. 

“Sex?” Daphne asked, at the same time as he said, “Fruit?”  
  
They laughed together, and Niles delighted in the way Daphne’s eyes lit up when she smiled. 

“I would love some,” she said. “Fruit, I mean. Although sex is good, too!”

Someone had to be testing him. Niles was ready to crawl out of his skin, he was so on edge. Things like this just didn’t happen to the Crane men!

“I’m sorry, Dr. Crane, I must have sex on my mind tonight!” She picked up a piece of fruit and Niles nearly came apart as she sucked the juice out of it. 

“The heat,” he managed to get out, though it sounded almost like a gasp. “It’s the heat.”

“The heat doesn’t help,” Daphne agreed as she leaned back against the couch. Niles noted that his robe came open just so, giving him another glimpse of one of those sharp collarbones. “The heat just… gets inside of you. It makes you so aware of your body. A person does crazy things in heat like this.”

Niles was the one trembling now as he let out a sound that was half sigh half growl. “God it’s hot.” He stood up and turned away to grab ice out of the bucket the champagne had been cooling in. 

Now it was Daphne’s turn to look. Tonight Niles’s body wasn’t hidden under a suit jacket, instead he wore a gauzy white shirt that clung to his skin in a few places and only accentuated how broad his shoulders were. She wondered idly how long it would take to kiss her way from one shoulder to the other. 

“Ice?” Niles turned and held a piece out to her, and when Daphne’s fingers touched his own he thought he was truly going to split at the seams. 

“Thank you,” Daphne sighed as she ran the ice over her neck, up behind her ear and then along the back of her neck. She shivered as a rivulet of water slipped down the dressing gown and between her breasts. “Ohhhh… yes, that’s better…”

Niles wanted to chase that stream with his mouth. This had to be the world’s cruelest dream, surely he would wake up any moment now.

Daphne’s eyes were hazy as she looked up at Niles. “I s’pose you’ll be wanting to get to bed soon?” she asked as her fingers fell to her lap, nearly touching the hem of the robe. “Though I doubt we’ll be getting much sleep tonight, with this heat…”

“Bed?” Niles felt himself short circuit for a moment. “Oh-- bed! Yes, we should-- get to bed.” He gestured to the fan in the corner. “You can take the fan, I’ll move it to the guest room for you.”  
  
“There’s only one?” Daphne watched Niles as he drained his champagne. Why was she just now noticing the dip at his throat? She could sip champagne from his skin, something that sent another shiver over her body. “It’s your house, I can’t take the fan.”  
  
“I insist.” Niles was already turning it off. If he could stay busy, if they could each get into their respective rooms, they would make it through the night. “I won’t sleep knowing you’re in the next room, all hot and… hot.”

Daphne reached for another piece of ice. “Dr. Crane… we’re both adults…” She pressed the ice to her throat with another soft moan. “Under the circumstances, maybe we could… share a bed?”

There was a clatter as the fan fell to its side, with Niles barely catching himself against the wall. “Share a--”

“A bed,” Daphne finished for him. She stood up and crossed the room to pick the upended fan up from the floor. “So we both have the fan.” Truly she wasn’t thinking about the fan, though, but was now wondering how Niles would react if she slipped her cool hands under his shirt. 

“It does… oscillate.” 

“What?” Daphne brought her eyes up from Niles’s shirt to meet his gaze. It was startling to see that his eyes looked as bright as hers felt. 

“The fan.” Niles licked his lips. Why was his mouth so dry? When was the last time he had had a drink?

“Yes. The fan.” Daphne took another step forward. They were so close now, she could feel Niles’s breath against her cheek. 

In another world, in another time, a watch would have beeped, pulling them both off of this track. In another world Daphne would leave, would return home and make up with Sherry. 

In this world, however, the watch was in the bathroom, beeping for no one to hear. 

It was unclear who made the first move. Daphne’s hands were on Niles’s shoulders, his hands were around her waist as their lips came together. They stumbled, sending the fan over onto its side again, but this time no one bothered picking it up.  
  
Niles felt drunk as he tasted Daphne’s lips, as his fingers skimmed up her back to tangle in her damp curls. “Daphne--” he gasped, and then he was kissing her throat and Daphne was pulling at his shirt.  
  
“Dr. Crane--”  
  
Niles couldn’t help but laugh as he pulled her closer. “I think you can call me ‘Niles’ now,” he murmured against her skin before trailing his lips down the same path he’d seen the melted ice take earlier.  
  
“Oh _Niles_.” Daphne’s eyes closed and her head tipped back as Niles pressed hurried kisses from her neck to her shoulder and then back up to her ear. 

“Daphne, oh Daphne--” Niles could swear his heart pounded hard enough to be felt from the outside. Daphne was here, she was in his arms and he was kissing her and-- and nearly tripping over the fan with her. 

He stepped over it as he pushed and Daphne pulled until they were on the couch and falling onto it together. 

Daphne pulled at Niles’s shirt, until it was off and she could run both of her hands down his back. His skin was soft and warm against her fingertips, but she didn’t have much time to appreciate it before Niles was sitting up over her.

“I need to see you.” His voice trembled with need, trembled almost as much as his hands on the tie of the dressing gown. “Please.” 

“Yes,” Daphne breathed as she moved to help push the silk out of the way. 

Niles had pictured this a million times over in his mind. He had wondered what her body looked like, wondered if she was as soft and as warm and as beautiful in person as she was in his mind. His mind had come nowhere near getting it right, though. She wasn’t Venus or Aphrodite. She was Daphne, Daphne with her pale skin and her wild hair and those lips that Niles could write poetry about he loved them so.  
  
The words weren’t coming to him just then, though. How could he speak when he had perfection lying underneath him, when she was giving herself to him. 

“Niles?” Daphne flushed as Niles leaned in to press a kiss to her collarbone, to her shoulder and her arm and to the bend of her elbow before moving to kiss the tips of each of her breasts. They had barely touched and she was on fire, ready for more, but Niles seemed intent to take his sweet time.  
  
His fingers trailed down along her ribcage, carving the way for his lips, until he was half off of the couch and his mouth was just above the peak of her thighs.  
  
“Daphne,” he breathed, and then his lips were on her skin again and Daphne was arching off of the couch with a deep moan of his name. Her toes curled, her fingers tugged at his hair and scratched lightly at his back. He was eager, made more obvious by the sounds he made as she urged him closer. 

It didn’t take long for her to come apart and split into a million scattered pieces of herself. He didn’t stop, though, just kept touching and teasing until she cried out a second time, and he only stopped when Daphne pushed his head away. 

“Oh bloody hell,” she panted, her eyes closed. Maybe Sherry had been right, maybe she really did just need to get laid. Pushing Sherry out of her mind, Daphne pulled Niles closer, until he was over her again. She could taste herself on his mouth, something that sent another curl of heat through her body. 

“Niles, please,” she breathed. Her hands were on his pants now, opening them and pushing them down and out of the way. They were both shaking as her fingers slipped past the material of his underwear until she could feel the smooth skin of his cock. “Please--”  
  
Niles buried his face in Daphne’s throat as she stroked from root to tip and back again. He was achingly hard and was half afraid he wouldn’t last until he was inside of her, but then Daphne was pushing his pants further down and spreading her legs so one was hooked over the back of the couch. 

She pulled him closer, and when Niles pressed inside he couldn’t help but let out a near sob of pleasure and disbelief. This was Daphne, on his couch, touching him in ways he never had thought possible. Daphne who was so warm, so wet, so _perfect_ that he was ready to cry.

And yet here she was, pushing her hands down his back to grip his ass, urging him to move faster, until he was buried completely inside of her. 

Daphne pulled him down and kissed him deeply as they moved together. Niles meant to be gentle but he couldn’t help himself. He drove forward, pushing the air out of Daphne’s lungs with each jolt of pleasure. Every breath of his name, every gasp of pleasure in his ear and scrape of fingernails on his back just egged him on. Sex wasn’t like this with anyone else, and if he could only have it be like this once he was glad that it was with Daphne. 

Daphne’s nails dug into the small of his back and she arched up, and with another cry of Niles’s name she came apart underneath him once more. She trembled and held on as Niles kept moving, until he was gasping in her ear as he toppled over the edge after her. 

“Daphne--” Niles clung to her like he would float away if he didn’t. She was solid, real, and he was actually here with her. 

Daphne’s fingers combed through Niles’s hair as her breathing returned to normal. “So much for that shower,” she said with a soft laugh, one that Niles echoed. 

“You can always have another,” he said, though he made no move to actually get off of her. 

He would definitely have to send Sherry a bottle of wine.  
  



End file.
